81. Beyoncé, "Beyoncé"

 

My friend (and occasional commenter) Stephen has his own test for a Top 100 album: every album in that group, he says, "should be someone's favorite album."  He had his doubts about Plastic Ono Band (I don't, I'm absolutely sure there are some weird boomers who have this as their favorite album), but I have absolutely no doubts that this is a lot of people's favorite album.  And no surprise!  It's a great album!  I don't think of myself as a particularly huge Beyoncé fan, but there are a bunch of songs on this album I really liked right away.

It's wild to me that the first single was "XO," because, although it fits in with the sonic palette of the album, it could just as easily be a Yeah Yeah Yeah song with a few tweaks.  Like all the other songs on the album, it was the product of a collaborative process, this particular one written with The-Dream (yes, he uses the hyphen in his name), who also helped write "Umbrella" for Rihanna and a little song you may have heard of called "Single Ladies" earlier with Bey herself.  But "XO" also had another writer, Ryan Tedder of the pop-rock outfit OneRepublic, which might explain the pop sensibilities of this song.  Beyoncé was a "visual album," each song accompanied by a short film (or "video," one might say), so let's pause and take in the video for this song:

Does that sound at the beginning remind you of the guitar part from "How Soon Is Now?" or is that just me?  Anyway, wow, what a banger, with about 10 hooks in one song and a call-and-response chorus and a Terry Richardson video and just the whole thing.  Not only is this is a great pop song, it's a great example of Beyoncé's incredibly voice and just her being her larger-than-life self.

The second single was "Drunk in Love," which is maybe? possibly? the best-known song on the album, but not one of my faves, for whatever reason.  Beyoncé's husband Jay-Z provides a guest verse that is, of course, Jay-Z great, but after coming down off the hook plateau of "XO" it's just not as much.

The album returns again and again to themes of sexuality and power.  In "Drunk in Love" and "Blow," the sexuality is raw and open ("Can you eat my skittles/It's the sweetest in the middle, yeah/Pink is the flavor, mmh").  But it's not all a good time.  "Heaven," which I'm sure has been played at more than one funeral, is indescribably sad:

We laughed at the darkness
So scared that we lost it
We stood on the ceilings
You showed me love was all you needed
Heaven couldn't wait for you
Heaven couldn't wait for you

But you know what else is great?  The first song, "Pretty Hurts," written originally by Sia for Katy Perry, is one of those soaring, anthemic songs you can imagine fireworks going off behind, but Bey gives it a nuanced performance exposing the pain behind the brass.  I don't think Katy Perry would have done it the same justice.  And I haven't mentioned the 50's-inflected "Superpower," with its doo-wop 6/8 beat and sultry sound and Frank Ocean guest vocals.

Look, I said I wasn't a particularly huge Beyoncé fan, but I like this so maybe I'm a Beyoncé fan after all.

Is this album in my personal Top 500? I will absolutely make room for this record.